Dayton football enjoying a ‘smooth camp’ as season opener approaches

The team photo, of course, takes the longest. Photographers, including Erik Schelkun, the principal photographer at UD for decades, climb a ladder to make sure every face is visible as the players sit in the stands with the coaches forming the back row.

The annual Media Day photo session on Sunday was a sign the season is near, and for Dayton, the season arrives a bit earlier than usual. The Flyers play on a Thursday in Week 1, facing Eastern Illinois in Charleston, Ill., at 7 p.m. on Aug. 28.

“It’ll be a very fun environment,” said cornerback Cam Cope, one of three captains for the 2025 Flyers. “It’s a night game. I’m excited to hit. We don’t have to wait until that Saturday. We get it in a few days early.”

Dayton started preseason practices July 30. Classes don’t begin until Aug. 25. Coach Trevor Andrews, who’s entering his third season, has plenty of time this month to work with his players when football is the only focus.

“Knock on wood, it’s been a smooth camp, as far as the weather,” Andrews said. “We’re going in the mornings. I feel like last year there were thunder showers, and we had to move stuff around. This year, we haven’t had to move one thing. It’s been good. We’ve been able to stay on schedule throughout our day.

“We put all this planning into preseason, and you want to make sure there’s recovery time and treatment and time to meet and watch film and practice and all that stuff. It just helps the learning and growth process.”

Dayton finished 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the Pioneer Football League last season.

One of the key returners is redshirt sophomore quarterback Drew VanVleet, who started four games as a freshman and all 11 games last season. He has 20 touchdown passes in his career but also 13 interceptions. The offense ranked ninth out of 11 teams in the PFL with 17.8 points per game in conference play.

“You can’t have as many turnovers as I did last year,” VanVleet said. “That’s for sure. And we want to put more points on the board this year.”

Position battles are always a focus of preseason practices, and Andrews talked about a few of them Sunday.

• At cornerback, Tehron Spencer Jr., a redshirt sophomore, is competing with Josh Williams, a redshirt sophomore from Wayne High School, for one of the starting jobs opposite Cope.

• At safety, redshirt sophomore Vincent Firenze, redshirt junior Luke Mitchell, a Vandalia Butler graduate who started all 11 games last season, and Javawn Brooks, a redshirt freshman, are competing for time.

• At the nickel spot, Bennett Lawrence and Eli Kirk, both redshirt juniors, are competing for the job.

• At wide receiver, six or seven players are competing for time. The top returner is junior Gavin Lochow, who led the team with 59 receptions last season.

Lochow was one of four Flyers to receive All-PFL preseason honors, along with junior running back Mason Hackett, fifth-year senior offensive lineman Ryan Iiams, a Springboro graduate and Cope.

Dayton was picked to finish fifth in the PFL preseason poll this year.

“We want to prove that wrong,” Cope said, “but it doesn’t really change our goal. We know what we want before those rankings come out, and that’s a PFL championship. That’s what we’re striving for every practice, every day.”